Rockefeller Center’s Head Gardener Spotted Rebecca Decker’s 76-Foot Spruce in West Edmeston About Six Years Ago. It Will Be Lit Dec. 2.

Rebecca Decker first thought the request to take her family’s spruce might be a joke. It was not: the 76-foot Norway spruce that has stood on the family’s property in West Edmeston, N.Y., for about 75 years is this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and it will be lit on Wednesday, Dec. 2.

The tree reached Manhattan on Saturday, Nov. 7, after the center’s head gardener waited roughly six years to ask for it.

A Family Property in West Edmeston

NBC’s Palm Springs station reported that the spruce spent more than seven decades growing quietly on a family property, and that Decker donated it. She has three children, and Christmas is their favorite holiday. According to the report, she is excited to see the tree in New York City but will miss having it in her yard.

West Edmeston is a small hamlet in upstate New York. This Is CNY places it about 28 miles south of Utica, while NY1 describes it as roughly 30 minutes west of Cooperstown.

The tree is large even for this tradition. It stands 76 feet tall, spreads about 50 feet across and weighs roughly 11 tons, according to WTOC.

Six Years of Watching One Spruce

The center’s head gardener first noticed the tree about six years ago and recognized its shape and potential, the Palm Springs report said. He did not ask the family right away. He waited until earlier this year to raise the idea of a donation.

Along the way, he learned something that suggests the tree had already caught other eyes. The family that donated the 2023 Rockefeller tree had independently noticed the same spruce and sent him a photo of it.

Finding such a tree is the head gardener’s job. 6sqft identifies the gardener who has picked the tree for more than 30 years as Erik Pauze, and reports that the trees he chooses are typically at their maximum height and often outgrow the properties they stand on. The Palm Springs report spells the name differently, so the spelling here follows 6sqft.

The Cut and the Trip to Manhattan

NY1 and 6sqft both reported that the spruce would be cut down on Thursday, Nov. 5, and arrive in Manhattan on Saturday, Nov. 7. WTOC confirmed it arrived that Saturday, and 6sqft said the arrival coincided with Meet the Tree Day.

This site’s earlier report on the Decker family’s spruce noted that one outlet put the cutting a day later. The sources used here give Nov. 5, and the Saturday arrival is not in dispute.

By simple arithmetic, a tree about 75 years old took root in the early 1950s, when the Rockefeller Center tree tradition was itself only about 20 years old. WTOC put the finished weight at about 11 tons, which gives a sense of what had to make the trip from upstate New York to the plaza.

What Happens to the Tree in New York

Once upright, the spruce gets about 50,000 multicolored LED lights and a Swarovski star. amNewYork reported that the tree will be lit during the live broadcast of “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. NY1 reported that it stays on view through Jan. 9, and 6sqft added that it will be lit for 24 hours on Christmas Day and from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.

The star is a 900-pound piece designed by architect Daniel Libeskind in 2018, according to 6sqft, and the strands of lights run across about five miles of wire. This Is CNY adds that the star is covered in 3 million crystals.

The tree’s story does not end on Jan. 9. amNewYork reported that the wood will be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity, which uses it to build and improve homes for families. That is a long-running practice: Wikipedia’s history of the tree says the lumber donation has gone on since 2007.

The tradition itself is older. WTOC notes that construction workers building Rockefeller Center set up a small tree decorated with handmade garlands in 1931, and the first formal lighting followed in 1933. Wikipedia describes that first tree as a 20-foot balsam fir, and the 1933 tree as a 50-foot balsam fir, so the Norway spruce that now dominates the tradition came later.

Why a Norway Spruce Fits the Job

Norway spruce is the usual choice for the plaza. Wikipedia lists it as the species in most years since 1934, with trees typically 69 to 100 feet tall.

North Carolina State Extension’s plant database says the species, Picea abies, is native to Europe and grows rapidly. It has a conical shape, with upright branches when young and drooping ones as it matures, and it typically reaches 40 to 60 feet in a landscape, well below the height of the Decker family’s 76-foot tree.

The same page notes that Norway spruce is the typical Christmas tree in Great Britain and has served several times as the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. It is also the most widely used spruce in North America for horticultural purposes, though it does poorly in the warmer summers of the southern U.S.

Rockefeller Center is not the only place a family tree is headed for a public square this season. This site also reported on Joanne Sunn’s spruce, which became Milwaukee’s Christmas tree.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Michael Vadon – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons